Interhospitalia: Automation of Hospital Laundry Sorting with Girbau Sortech

A laundry specialized in the healthcare sector

Interhospitalia is an industrial laundry located in Terrassa, dedicated exclusively to the healthcare sector and serving more than 22 facilities. In this environment, linen arrives with blood and other typical hospital residues, making manual sorting a complex task in terms of hygiene, safety, and ergonomics.

To move towards greater automation and worker protection, Interhospitalia implemented the Girbau Sortech project in 2023.

All Interhospitalia linen items are equipped with RFID chips. Using RFID reading antennas, Sortech automatically identifies each garment and sorts it into a dedicated cart according to its type.

The system collects incoming soiled laundry and, using gripping devices, picks garments one by one in a continuous flow. Each RFID reading instantly identifies the item and sends it to its assigned cart, with fully customizable sorting configurations.

Sortech features LED indicators that show when a cart is nearly full or needs to be replaced. Operators simply remove and change the cart, without handling the soiled garments.

The simple and accessible design enables fast, ergonomic maintenance. A touchscreen interface provides real-time production data, and a control table allows users to view all sorting configurations for each client.

According to Joaquim Guallarte, Managing Director of Interhospitalia, Sortech has delivered a significant productivity increase in the washing area and, most importantly, has greatly improved working conditions. Operators are no longer required to perform hard manual sorting and can focus on higher value-added tasks such as quality control.

Ferran Cirera, Industrial Segment Manager at Girbau, explains that Sortech can sort up to 1,800 items per hour, equivalent to the work of two operators per shift, offering an innovative, robust, automatic, simple, and reliable solution with continuous, uninterrupted production.